Duke St. Workshop Hospital / Cyclone Fence

2 reviews »If you've been paying close attention you may remember The Duke St Workshop from that superb CD they brought out last year and sold out almost instantly. The press release says that the A side is "about the safety of a Hospital environment (or any seemingly safe environment) being breached by some external force". It starts out with some barely-audible life support beeps (which quietly continue th ... »

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REVIEWS

If you've been paying close attention you may remember The Duke St Workshop from that superb CD they brought out last year and sold out almost instantly. The press release says that the A side is "about the safety of a Hospital environment (or any seemingly safe environment) being breached by some external force". It starts out with some barely-audible life support beeps (which quietly continue throughout, so they're the last song you hear in the piece too) under some very John Carpenter-ish synth drones and paranoid flourishes. So far so 'Halloween II', but then a pulsating melody joins the fray along with some minimal giallo-disco programmed drums, and then the strident melodic theme comes in, with a soft-edged synth and a harder twinkly one playing in unison. It's quite understated and minimal but very effective.

On the other side is 'Cyclone Fence', a reworked old track apparently, whose title references a notorious child murder. It's a much more minimal track with a weird squelchy echoed beat alongside a patient repeated chord sequence and a bold melodic theme at the forefront. It's pretty strong but as with so many 7"s the A side is the real tour de force here.

10/10
James CoxCustomer review, 12th June 2014

Well, this is great. Great little format with great soundtracky tunes. They don't overstay their welcome because it's a single, but gives me a sense of the band...who obviously love John Carpenter movies and occultish type things. Perfection.